Last weekend I had an incredible opportunity to be a part of a team from our church partnering with inCOMMON Community Development to bring physical restoration to a hurting and broken place.
Sheri's Show Club has been in business off of Park Avenue in downtown Omaha for years. That is until it was purchased by the Kohll's Pharmacy & Homecare next door. And rather than letting it sit vacant, they have allowed inCOMMON to transform it into the Park Avenue Community Center.
Calvin Smothers, the director of the Center, said there’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Sheri’s Show Club was kind of left in a disarray,” he said. [It was a] “really dark place on the inside… so, we hope to make a place that’s currently pretty dark, and pretty dirty, become real vibrant, real bright.”
Last weekend we began the initial stages of demolition and cleanup, and it is incredibly exciting for me to see a place once known for such brokenness as drug use and prostitution, begin to see redemption in such a practical way.
As we were working a man stopped by the front door and asked, "Is this the place you are turning into a Community Center?" Someone responded to confirm that it is. He then said, "Wow, that kind of stuff isn't known around these parts."
No comments:
Post a Comment